red rumble
by meanbow
Summary: Rally and May go up against the russian mafia, with disasterous results.May has to go it alone, with a little help from Becky and Misty, in order to get her friend back home safely...


**(2)**

**Gunsmith Cats: Red Rumble**

**By meanbow**

A story, based on characters created by kenichi sonoda

A standard disclaimer, all characters herein are owned by kenichi sonoda, except the bad guys, who I created and are all from a dark recess of my mind (I have one of those things?) Also note, the locations are real, but I have created fictional companies in their vicinity to keep the story going and do not relate to real companies. ENJOY!

Prologue 

'How did I end up in this mess?' rally thought back on the evenings events. 'It's bad enough I let myself get blindsided by these guys, and they were the targets. How could I let myself down like that?'

The question was racing through her mind over and over, like a stuck record.

Damn it! She again tried to get her hands free, but seeing as she was locked in the boot of a Mercedes-Benz, trussed up like a Christmas turkey, with hardly any room to move, it wasn't surprising that she found it difficult, nay, impossible to move.

**part 1 ****The Beginning**

What had started out as a routine bounty had quickly turned sour, the building that the target was in, was, as is always favoured by undesirables and villain types, an old warehouse, on the east side of Chicago, near the old town district. 'Piece of cake' she thought, 'no security, nowhere for him to run to, no way he's getting out of here, unless it's with me'

May had set up a distraction, a small flash bomb on a timer, so that the target, one Ivan Romanov, former Russian KGB agent, and now contract killer in the U.S, would go to investigate the commotion, but it wasn't as easy as that. Romanov had company that evening, in the form of the local Russian mafia, and their boss, Carlos Predinski.

'3 minutes til the flash bomb goes off', rally mused as she looked at her watch, and then thought to check in with her partner.

"May, you all set?" she asked softly into the concealed mike in the lapel of her Kevlar reinforced jacket.

"All set, Rally. Ready when you are" replied the voice on the other end.

May had got the flanked position, so she could back rally up if need be, with a few carefully placed smoke charges and the remote control in her hand, giving her the advantage of surprise, and to create confusion.

However, neither of them were in a position to see the 2 black Mercedes-Benz come cruising up to the back doors of the warehouse, with it's rather unexpected cargo of 7 mafia men, and their boss.

BANG!

Off went the flash charge, and Rally made her move to the old skylight in the roof, moving as stealthily as ever, with all her skills and wits as sharp as the hunting knife she had strapped to her left ankle, she removed her own CZ-75 from it's hiding place. Ducking in without being seen, she proceeded along the overhead gantry.

Then she saw them, the 2 black cars, and their occupants, as well as the target for the evening.

"Shit!"

She cursed under her breath, knowing now it wouldn't be as easy as originally anticipated.

2 of the 7 men went to investigate the flash outside.

Ivan pulled his trademark Ruger out from his holster in his coat, sensing that danger was nearby. The other men with Predinski went to the back of the Mercedes, the boot opening on it's own accord, and started to arm themselves with what they kept in the car for such emergencies, M-60A machine guns, UZI sub-machine guns and an adapted Heckler and Kosh hand gun were the order of the moment.

"May, there's an unexpected complication"

She waited a moment for the reply.

"Rally, there's a couple of large men coming out, you never said there was more than one target"

May's voice had a slight edge to it. She didn't like surprises, and now that meant she had to delve into her bag of tricks.

May started to watch the movements of the 2 men, moving slowly towards the site of detonation.

"That's it, just a little closer…" She thought, as they were approaching a special booby trap she had planted, with a micro-fine trip wire that would set it off instantly.

Suddenly………the first man stopped.

Holding his left arm out, signalling to his partner that they should stop. A few words were said in Russian, then the two split up. Moving in opposite directions, away from the trip-wire and May's trap.

"Damn you!"

She cursed to herself, and then thought of calling rally, to inform her of the situation outside.

Inside the warehouse, Rally was maintaining her position up top, perched behind the crane cradle, where she could see the target, and his rather uninvited guests in relative safety, without being seen from directly below, plus her choice of gear for the evening helped.

All dark materials .a black turtleneck sweater, due to it being rather cold out, her tight leather trousers, boot socks and black boots, along with the customary "gunsmith cats" jacket she wore every time she went out on a bounty.

Below, the Russian mafia boss, Carlos, turned to Ivan and ushered him towards the back of the Mercedes, indicating that they should leave, so Rally thought that it was to be now or never.

"FREEZE!"

She shouted from up above, her CZ-75 trained on the men below. Romanov opened fire with his Ruger, missing by mere inches, but still enough to get rally pissed, so she returns the compliment, and lets a few shots go towards him.

Romanov falls to the floor, having been shot in the leg by her.

All of a sudden, a loud voice screamed in rally's ear.

"RALLY! These guys are after me!"

May screamed into the mike as she was being pursued by the larger of the two Russians sent outside to investigate the disturbance. It was enough to distract her for a few brief seconds, and that was all that was needed for predinski's right hand man, Alex Chekovski to get behind her from below and take a shot.

BANG!

The dart hit her in the right hand side of her neck, sending a ripple of pain across her neck and back, as well as making her fall forward with the impact. Her prized CZ-75 slipped from her grasp, falling to the floor below with a thud, as she grabbed onto the guardrail in front of her to stop falling anymore than she already had.

"DAMN! My heads going fuzzy………..I…can't…stand ……up"

She started to lose consciousness, as she realised that what had hit her was a tranquilliser dart, fired from the modified Heckler and kosh.

Outside, May was trying to avoid the Russians chasing her, dodging in between large crates and barrels, dropping a few "presents" behind her as she was going.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Off went the smoke grenades, giving May the opportunity to hide safely inside a large barrel. Behind her, a few coughs and some shouting told her the men were nearby, however, they didn't find her hiding, and after a few seconds of looking in the vicinity, they gave up, and started to head back to the warehouse.

'WHEW!' she thought to herself, then remembered rally.

"Rally, come in…Rally? You there girl friend?"

All that greeted her was the cold and empty noise of static.

Alex and Jorgân, another one of the thugs, were dragging down rally from the cradle. The radio earpiece working in her ear, but rally unable to respond to it.

"Examine her, and find that second person," Barks Predinski in his deep Russian voice.

"And get the medical kit from the back of the car, he is bleeding on my shoes"

Romanov was standing as best he could, using Carlos predinski as a support, of which his 'employer' was not too happy about. The others went about looking for the unidentified second person outside again, while Alex took care of Romanov's injuries and Jorgân was examining rally.

"Comrade predinski, I have found another gun on her, and a knife too." replies jorgân "and I think this is a radio…………" he says as he pulls the wire from her ear and traces it back to her inside jacket pocket.

"Destroy it" he replies, "and when you have finished with her, tie her up and put her in my car, she may be of use to us"

"Da, comrade Predinski"

**part2 ****The burning warehouse**

Riding inside the Mercedes was by far more comfortable than the harsh ride and treatment that poor rally was going through inside the boot. Her neck was hurting where the dart had hit her; she was still groggy as well. And to make it all complete, here she was, Rally Vincent, the best bounty hunter in Chicago, tied up helplessly and crammed in a boot!

'Why didn't I notice him moving up behind me?'

She kept trying to replay the scene in her head, studying all the possibilities, but not having much luck while still feeling groggy with that sedative from the dart.

Inside, Carlos Predinski was examining all that was found on her.

"Very interesting. It seems our mystery lady is a local bounty hunter by the name of Rally Vincent" he said, while looking through Rally's wallet and other personal items found on her, the CZ-75, the wrist-mounted spring loaded .38, the small hunting knife, a pair of handcuffs and her wallet containing her bounty hunter's I.D card and licence.

"You don't suppose that she was after me, comrade?" asks Ivan.

"Da, Ivan. You have gained a good reputation in Chicago, and have a hefty bounty on your head too. I would turn you in myself, IF I wasn't going to be arrested with you!"

With that joke, both men laughed.

Whilst merely driving, Jorgân and Alex were upfront in the Mercedes, when Alex's cell phone went off.

"Da?"

"I see, I shall inform him now"

"Comrade Predinski, it seems the others cannot find the second person anywhere in the area. Mikhail thinks that she was in contact with someone who escaped, a police officer perhaps. They are going to return to headquarters behind us"

"Understood, my friend," replies Carlos, "Just make sure that they leave NOTHING behind that can tell the local police we were there, so our 'friend' is made out a liar, and use our sources in the police department to find out who she was talking to "

"Understood, boss" he replies, and then relays the instruction over the phone to the remaining men at the scene.

"It is done," he adds, "There will be nothing left of that warehouse but a few smouldering ashes"

May, still hiding inside the large barrel, heard a lot of commotion outside. Curiosity got the better of her, and she stuck her head out of the top of the barrel for a look at the noise, whilst maintaining a low profile.

The second Mercedes had pulled out of the warehouse, and the remaining men were setting a few items around the outside of the building. May recognised them immediately as timers for incendiary devices, and duly noted that they were also pouring fuel from an old forklift truck's tank around and inside the warehouse, while another man got to work on the electric cabling in the place, to make it look like an accidental warehouse fire started by faulty wiring.

"These guys are good," she said quietly to herself, while trying to see the length of time set on the incendiary bombs' timer.

'Rally, where are you?' she was thinking. There had been no contact for more than 5 minutes now, and May was getting worried.

She heard one of the cars leave earlier on, but didn't think much of it, she had assumed that the ringleader was making his escape, but had managed to get the plate of the car as it was going, thanks to a small hole within her eye line in the barrel.

Then opportunity came, the 4 men got into their car and drove off, thinking that their task was done.

May used this to get out of the barrel and run quickly to the warehouse doors, disabling the device's in the vicinity with skills passed on from her boyfriend, Ken, clearing herself a path back out in a hurry if needed.

Inside the building, there was the smell of gunpowder in the air, as well as petrol from the fork truck, telling her that there had been a fire fight, but to which she didn't hear, due to her trying to avoid the 2 burly Russians and capture, possibly worse.

Looking around quickly, she found the small pool of blood on the floor, and tire marks from the first car just to the right of them. Just in front of them, may found what she was looking for, evidence of rally being there.

"Yes! This is one of hers" she goes, picking up a spent cartridge from a gun out of a small hole in the floor. Turning around to look at the angle of the cartridge in the hole, she guessed that rally had been on the gantry just above her to her left. Then she looked at her watch, and panicked.

"DAMN! MOVE IT GIRL!"

She shouted at herself and turned and ran towards the door as fast as her legs would carry her.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Four explosions rocked the building as may got through the doors.

BOOM! BOOM!

Another two from inside the warehouse, one of them destroying the power box and igniting the fuel on the floor, flames immediately sprang up and ran the length of the floor, following the trail of fuel the Russians had left.

May dived for cover behind the barrel that had earlier protected her from the men and their pursuit.

'Huh, twice in the same night 'she thought as she turned and sat back up behind the barrel, watching the flames take a hold on the building.

'There goes my chance at finding clue's to what happened to rally'

She stood up and stopped to look at the warehouse, now totally engulfed in flames.

How long she stood there for, she can't remember, all she could remember is staring at the building, listening to sirens, both police and fire department, approaching in the distance, the voice of a police officer telling her that she was under arrest, and the familiar voice of detective Roy Coleman asking her what happened.

* * *

"May? What happened here?" 

"HUH? Oh, sorry Roy. I don't know"

"You must know something. You wouldn't be here otherwise, and I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on" Roy said to her, emphasising the words as he said them.

"Can I tell you in private, please?" she begged him, and gave him _that _look with those big green eyes of hers.

"Walk with me" he replies

The two of them start to walk slowly away from the scene; May chips in

"How about getting me out of these bracelets first, Roy? They don't match my outfit"

Roy chuckles

"I see you haven't lost your sense of humour then!" and reaches in his pocket for the keys.

"So, what happened then? And don't worry, nothing you tell me will go beyond me, unless it is important to this investigation" he says, unlocking the handcuffs.

"Me and rally…" she starts "we were hunting a guy tonight, but I don't know what's happened to rally. She went in through the skylight, and I never saw her come back out. I'm worried about her Roy. I was inside there before it went up, and there was no sign of her anywhere. All I could find was this…"

May pulled the used bullet out of her pocket, and gave it to Roy.

"This is one of rally's" he goes "I recognise the calibre,"

He says whilst turning the casing around slowly in between his thumb and forefinger.

'She can't be dead, I never found her body' May thought to herself, trying not to think of that thought, but not succeeding.

"So, you and rally were on a bounty eh? Who was it?" Roy asks

"Ivan Romanov" she replies

"So he's back in town again. Thanks for the information, May. I'll see to it you get taken home safely. Meanwhile, I have an investigation to run" he goes to her, then signals to a nearby officer, whom he instructs to take May home.

The ride home was a silent affair. The officer didn't approve of detective Coleman's policy of letting 'suspects' go home, and then getting police to TAKE them home as well, but he was merely a beat cop, not someone who can argue with a detective. All the while, may was thinking to herself about the car that left earlier, and it's occupants.

Was rally in the car with them?

Maybe they had her….

Maybe they had killed her and were going to dump her body later..

NO, not rally. It could never happen to rally.

Could it?

Still, may now had a plan, all she had to do was wait to get back home…

**part3 The plan**

May got dropped off at the house she shared with rally, looking at the clock on her way in, saying 12.17a.m,and went in.

First order of business, call Becky.

May went to the phone next to the sofa in the living room and hit speed dial. Becky answered in 4 rings.

"Rebecca Farrah's residence, who's calling? And it better be good at this time of night" she answered tiredly

"Becky, It's me. May, I need your help"

"May? What a surprise! I thought it would be rally" Becky quipped

"It's about rally, Becky. Something's happened to her, and I don't know what. I need your help, PLEASE"

"O.k. O.k., you got it may, what do you need?"

"A licence plate check, for the owner of a black Mercedes-Benz, reg. QLZ 9630" she goes.

"Ahh" goes Becky, "a hack into the DMV computers, this is going to be a piece of cake. Hold on, I'll get it for you now"

There was a brief pause in the conversation, then….

"Out of curiosity…"she asks "what do you need this for, May?"

"I'm…not sure myself, but all I know is that that car left earlier, and I can't find rally anywhere. So I'm hoping it'll lead me to someone who knows where she is" goes may.

"Here we are" Becky replies

"Car is registered to a limited company, predinski shipping and storage, the owner, one Carlos Predinski, Russian businessman and upstanding citizen, if you believe his file in the police records. It seems the police have been watching Mr Predinski for some time, but have yet to get anything on him, even though they suspect his company is a front for the mafia"

"WOW! You got that from the plate alone?"

May sounded shocked, but knew that Becky's info was never wrong, as it had helped her and Rally out no end in the past, now she was hoping that it would help her find her best friend.

"Not really May, I cross-referenced his name with the police departments computer. Easy as that" Becky went, sounding smug.

"O.k., Becky. Thanks, I owe you"

"Damn right you do, my services aren't free you know. You find rally, and then we'll come to some sort of arrangement" she retorts "now get out there and find her, I'll send all the info to you now on the fax"

All of a sudden, the fax machine next to rally's p.c started to print out, meaning Becky was sending the info to her, so May strolled over with the phone to the fax.

"Thanks Becky"

"Remember, you owe me May Hopkins"

Then the line went dead.

May looked at the sheet that was coming out of the fax,

Name: Carlos Predinski

Age: 49

Occupation: businessman, owns Predinski shipping and storage Ltd, warehouse 15c outer harbour, lake shore drive, Chicago, Ill

Suspected dealings: smuggling of drugs, firearms and cars, protection raquetering, extortion, strong-arm tactics, counterfeiting and laundering

"Hmmm, interesting reading" she says to herself, as the fax finished off printing the info.

With that piece of information in her hand, May heads upstairs to change, and restock her now depleted supplies of grenades, and to call on a friend for help.

**part4 A change for the better**

Looking in the mirror at herself, May chooses a different outfit to what she was wearing. Off came the short blue trousers, white top, bomb jacket and trainers; on went a pair of slacks, her red flat heel boots, a tight black top, and her bomb jacket. Seeing herself like that, May smiled slyly, and then went to leave her room, but stopped as she looked at the back of the door, more specifically, what was hanging from the hook on the door, the smith and Weston .38 revolver and holster that rally had given her when they had just started to work together on bounty's.

Now, May was more of a 'bomb freak' (as rally called her), but for some reason, she decided that it was necessary to pack a 'piece' this time as well.

So with that, May took off her jacket, strapped on the holster, pulled the gun and checked the chamber for bullets.

'6 rounds' she thought, then remembered that rally kept ammo for this gun ready to use in the gun cabinet downstairs, so she would grab some on her way out.

Back on went the jacket, out the door and heading downstairs.

Stopping at the cabinet for more rounds of ammo, and grabbing her car keys from the hook in the kitchen, as well as the cell phone she had.

With that done, May headed to the garage.

The garage at the back of the house normally had two cars in it, but since Rally's car was still at the place it was left when they arrived to get their man (about ½ a block from the scene) just May's little FIAT was there, and that hadn't been anywhere for a while. Getting into the car she started to say quietly to herself 'please start, please start', then the little car's engine turned over slowly, and suddenly comes to life with a muffled roar and a bit of blowback from the exhaust, as well as a load of black smoke.

"DAMN IT!" she goes " I knew I should have used this car more than just every so often"

Then she remembered that every time they go out, it's always rally's car that gets to go, and her little baby just sits there, waiting.

The garage door opens up, and may pulls out slowly, and starts to head downtown to get a friend.

**part5 Interrogation**

"WAKE UP YOU AMERICAN BITCH!"

Rally suddenly feels a slap to her right hand side of her face, and it starts to sting instantly.

Starting to come around slowly, rally raises her head and replies

"I don't want to go to school today"

"You are not going to school, my dear. But if you don't tell me what I want to know, you will be going to hell the fast way. With a bullet between those pretty blue eyes of yours!"

With that remark, rally looked up at the face of the person in front of her and scowls.

"Who are you?" she goes, trying to learn the identity of her captor, and trying to move her extremities against the shackles, binding her hands and feet together.

"Come now, miss Vincent. Surely you recognise me? After all, you were hunting me earlier this evening."

"Romanov" she replies coldly

"Da"

"What do you want with me?"

"Nothing. Except to maybe rid this city of you at a later stage. But that doesn't mean that HE doesn't want you for anything"

Ivan signalled to a person standing in the shadows, and rally looks over Romanov's shoulder at the mysterious figure.

"I know you…" she starts to say as he starts to move into the light

"You're Carlos predinski, long suspected member of the Russian mafia in Chicago"

"Correct, miss Vincent, except for one little bit of information. I am not a member of the Russian mafia, I AM THE RUSSIAN MAFIA, and I own this town"

"Yeah, sure you do" rally retorts sarcastically, and then gets rewarded for the comment by another hard slap across the face.

"OWW! Do that again and I'll bite your hand off!" she goes angrily.

Romanov laughs at the comment, and translates it to Russian for the others in the room, with that, the others start to laugh.

"I should keep you around just for comedic value, miss Vincent." Carlos says with a wry smile on his face

"But unfortunately, you know who we are, so we must dispose of you. Now then, be a good girl and tell me whom your friend was that you were talking to, and I promise you a swift and painless death. Refuse…. and my friend Ivan here is a master of torture, and he can keep you alive whilst giving you most excruciating pain you will ever know in your short life, Da?"

With that, rally spat in predinski's face.

Predinski pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket, and wipes the spit off his face.

"I see, miss Vincent, so it is to be like that, is it? Ivan, go prepare your 'tools'. We shall see how long she can stand out against your skills"

"Da comrade predinski, it will take me a couple of hours to prepare, I shall start immediately" Ivan says, and a cold and evil smile creeps across his face.

"Until we are ready then, we must bid you farewell, miss Vincent"

Predinski goes, and turns and heads out of the door, followed by the two large men standing either side of the doorway.

Romanov stands up from in front of rally, and licks his lips.

"I shall enjoy every second of this, I hope you do as well, this shall be my payback," he says, then turns and limps out the door as well, locking it solidly behind him

As soon as they were all gone, rally tried to struggle against the chains, but found she couldn't do a thing. Her hands were cuffed behind the chair using her own handcuffs she carried. 'How humiliating' she thought, and looked down at her feet, which she found she could only move so far, as they had a pair of shackles attached to them, with the chain going back to an iron loop in the floor.

'Damn it' she went quietly to herself, and then a thought entered her head

'What did happen to May?'

Suddenly, Rally realised that they couldn't have found her back at the warehouse.

With that in mind, a small smile slowly crept back on to rally's throbbing face, and she knew that May would be coming, and these guys better have a good life insurance plan.

**part6 An old friend**

May pulled up outside a small apartment block in the park west area of Chicago, then pulled out her cell phone and dialled a number. It rang twice.

A loud thud was heard first, then the sound of fumbling around

"Oomph, hello…" goes a voice on the other end.

"Misty? You up?"

"I am now, thanks to you. What is it may?"

"I need your help, and so does rally" she replies.

"Wait a minute. YOU need MY help? Is this a joke may?" goes Misty, still a little upset at being woken up at this late hour, looking over at her clock by the bedside saying 1.07 a.m.

"Yes Misty, I am serious. Rally's missing .I think she's been abducted by the guys we tried to apprehend earlier tonight, and I wanted you to get me into this address given to me by Becky for a look around. They may have something there telling me where to find her"

"So… you need a locksmith then?" Misty goes, with a smile and a glint in her eyes.

"Yeah" May replies "you up for it?"

"Give me 5 minutes to get myself together, and I'll be down" she goes.

5 minutes later, a fully dressed and ready to go Misty Brown appears in the doorway of the apartment block.

"Over here" calls May to Misty, signalling with her hand. Misty runs to the car and gets in the passenger side.

"Did you bring it?" May inquires

"TA-DA!" goes Misty, pulling her little black leather toolkit out of her pocket.

"Great! Now let's go find Rally"

The two girls head off in May's fiat to the address on the fax.

Around 1.39 a.m, the girls arrive at the address, the warehouse on the outer harbour waterfront with PREDINSKI SHIPPING AND STORAGE Ltd in large letters on a billboard on the front of the building.

"Right, can you get us in through that door over there?" May asks, and points to a

Metal door on the far side of the building.

"Hey, this is ME we are talking about here. If there's a lock on it, I can open it" Misty replies with a bit of an attitude.

"O.K then, let's go" May answered back.

The two of them crept over to the door in the shadows. As soon as they reached the door, Misty pulled her little black kit out again and starts to play with the lock.

"Should be easy" Misty goes "it's a standard cylinder lock, with no modifications"

Misty puts two ultra fine metal picks in the lock and starts to manipulate them, and then a CLINK from inside lets them know the door is now open.

"After you, miss" goes Misty, holding the door open for her with a smile on her face.

"Funny" May replies,"Lets go see what's behind this door"

From his vantage point in the warehouse located a few doors away from Predinski's, a police officer on lookout duties spots what was going on and radio's to his superior on the floor.

"Valmont to Black, activity spotted at Predinski's warehouse. A couple of young girls just entered there through the steel door on the far side. They look like they broke in, sir"

"Just great, now we have to do our job and look after that slime ball. I'll radio central and tell them to send backup. Keep watching"

"Aye sir"

Detective Coleman was clearing up his paperwork at this time. 'I hate the night shift' he thought, and went into his pocket again and pulled out the slug found by May. Ballistics had confirmed it earlier on; it was fired from a Czechoslovakian handgun, meaning rally's handgun. All of a sudden, there was a commotion outside in the corridor, and teams were assembling in the briefing room.

"What's going on?" shouts Roy.

"Trouble down on the waterfront, sir. Two unidentified females entered the warehouse we've been watching. One was a short blonde haired girl in a red leather jacket, the other had shoulder length brown hair and a dark jacket on"

Upon hearing that information, Roy's face went pale. He knew the girls that fitted that description, May and Misty.

With that, Detective Coleman grabbed his coat from the rack and headed for his car, determined to get there BEFORE his fellow officers.

**part7 The rescue**

Roy was giving that Chevy Crown Victoria the gun. Pedal to the metal, siren on and rotating light flashing.

"GET OUTTA MY WAY!" he yells as he passes a slow moving 4x4 in the fast lane of the J.F.K Expressway, passing other traffic as if it's standing still, weaving in and out of the lanes like a madman, a man with a mission.

"Coleman to Black, come in please…" Roy says into the radio mike

"Black here, go ahead"

"I am on route to you, DO NOTHING until I get there, is that understood?"

"Yes sir, but I thought this was a joint investigation…"

Before Sgt Black could go any further with his sentence, Roy intervened

"I SAID DO NOTHING! As of this minute, I am in charge, and I am ordering you to do exactly as I say, now stay put and monitor the situation, or the next job you'll be on is litter patrol in Douglas Park!"

With that, Roy slammed the mike down against the side of the dash, and went back to his mad run to the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, May and Misty were creeping through the shadows, not encountering anyone.

"This is hopeless" goes Misty

Suddenly, up ahead a couple of voices penetrate the silence.

May grabbed Misty's coat collar and pulled her into the darkness off to their left.

A few seconds later, 2 men walk past, talking Russian and carrying guns.

May recognised them as the men who chased her earlier on that evening.

"We hit pay dirt, Misty," she said in a soft, low voice. "Those two thugs chased me earlier on, so if they are here, then it looks like we found their hideout"

"Come on, this way" May signals to Misty to follow her in the direction the men came from.

The two girls came across a doorway, which they went through and opened out into a large storage room, with crates and boxes everywhere, labelled up as things like 'coffee', 'antiques', 'medical supplies' and 'computer parts'.

Misty goes over to a box that's on the floor, and pulls out one of her knives.

"What are you doing?" goes May "we haven't got time to mess around here"

"Just a quick look…" she replies, and then uses her knife to lever off the lid enough for a look inside.

"May, look at this!"

May went over to the box that had been opened, and her face went into a look of shock.

"GEEZ!" she went, almost loud enough to be heard "There must be a few hundred thousand dollars worth of drugs here"

"So these guys aren't regular bounty's then?" Misty enquires with a look of enquiry on her face.

"We may be out of our league here, we best get some more help, and fast" May answers

Before the two girls can move towards the doorway, the voices start to come back towards them.

"Down, now!" goes Misty, suddenly panicking

May ducks down behind the nearest big box, and Misty takes a position up behind another.

The two Russians walk back into the large storeroom, one was smoking a cigarette, the other had a can of soda in his hand.

"HEY!"

Misty jumps up from behind her box, and throws her knife at the first Russian with the soda can; it hits him in the left shoulder. He suddenly drops the soda can and fumbles around with the gun, but drops that too. Knowing she now doesn't have much choice, May gets up from behind her box, and pulls the Smith and Weston .38 out of it's holster and points it at the second Russian.

"Don'tcha know cigarettes can kill you?" May enquires, and slowly walks forward towards them, while Misty has another knife ready and also walks towards them.

The two Russians have no choice but to surrender to the girls.

After a few minutes of making sure their 'prisoners' were unable to escape, and May making sure they wouldn't talk by placing grenades in their mouths, the two girls headed out of the storeroom and towards another door at the far end of the room, where the men had mentioned there was another room.

They went through that door and found themselves in a loading area, with the two Mercedes, trucks and forklifts waiting around to load them.

At the far end of the room was another room, with a solid steel door.

Misty and May sneak across the floor to the door, and Misty looks at the lock on it.

"A simple 5 lever padlock, it'll take me a few minutes, but I think we'll get in there" says Misty, whilst pulling out her black leather pouch containing her lock picks.

"Just hurry up, will you? We need to find out where…"

All of a sudden, the padlock falls off, and misty has a smug grin on her face "you were saying something about hurrying up?"

"Just open the door and look inside, will you?" retorts May

Misty pulls the bolt across and pushes the door in. light fills the darkness of the room, and reveals…

**part8 Reunion**

"RALLY!" goes May, running in to her friend. "Rally, it's me, May"

Rally looks at her in disbelief.

"Is that really you, May? How did you find me?"

"Hi Rally"

"Misty too?"

"Yeah, now stay still for a few seconds so I can get these locks open, will you?" she replies.

May just gives rally a hug, wrapping her arms around her neck. Misty goes round behind Rally and starts to work on the locks.

Rally breaths a sigh of relief that her friends have come, then feels the handcuffs fall off her wrists.

The door opens again quickly to reveal Ivan standing there, rally see's him and feels May carrying that gun she gave her.

Ivan tries to pull out his Ruger from his jacket, Rally pulls her now free hands around from behind her, grabs May's gun with her right hand, and pulls her away with her left in one fluid movement.

Ivan's Ruger emerges from his jacket just as Rally has May's gun trained on him, and they both fire….

BANG! BANG!

Two shots fire, Ivan Romanov goes down from the force of the hit to his right shoulder, the other shot is from his gun, as the bullet embeds itself in the wall behind Rally's left shoulder.

May lands with a thud on the floor.

"OWW, Rally!" she gets back up and looks at her friend.

"AHHH! AHHH!" screams Romanov, then starts to say something in Russian that they can't understand.

"GEEZ RALLY!" screams Misty "that was too close to me!"

The ankle shackles fall open, as Misty has done her work again.

Rally stands up, and looks at Romanov.

"Still want to have some 'fun'?" she asks, and walks up to him with the handcuffs he had used on her, and pulls him over onto his belly and cuffs his hands behind his back.

A few hundred yards away further up the road, Detective Coleman had arrived and was taking charge of the situation.

"Alright then, I want a perimeter set up about 100 yards down the road, so no-one leaves. I want to know what supplies we have here, and how many men, and I want it 5 minutes ago"

"We have ten men on surveillance duties, a few sniper rifles and scopes, and our own sidearms, sir" goes Sgt Black

"Very well then, I want snipers up in a good position on the roof to watch out for movement, and I want a few men to follow me" he goes

With that, a truck moves out of it's location and heads 100 yards up the road, and stops sideways on to stop traffic.2 men with sniper rifles head to the rooftops, and 6 others start to check their side arms for ammo.

"What are we doing, sir?" Black enquires

"We're going in" Roy replies

"But we need a …" Black starts to say

Roy pulls a rolled up piece of paper from his inside coat pocket, quickly shows it and then puts it back.

Unknown to them, the rolled up sheet of paper Roy showed was just a menu for a local pizza restaurant.

**part9 The chase**

Detective Roy Coleman and 6 other officers start to head down towards the warehouse, all with weapons drawn and ready for anything.suddenly, gunfire inside the building makes the situation worse.

"Right, break it down" Roy goes to the first officer, who is also carrying a Battering

Ram.

Inside the building, all hell was breaking loose. After finding out that their prisoner was loose and armed, and that there were another two unidentified persons in the building, also armed, the place had turned to a war zone.

Rally, May and Misty were fighting to get out of that room, using Romanov as a human shield to do so.

Bullets were flying everywhere; Russians were going down as quickly as they appeared.

Holed up in the office upstairs, Carlos Predinski was quickly becoming terrified, seeing as his men were no match for these 3 women.

BOOM!

Another explosion from May's grenades, and another man went flying.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Rally hit another one, who was taking aim at Misty with a shotgun from the balcony above.

"Damn, I hate this gun!" she said about Romanov's Ruger.

Carlos Predinski used the back stairwell to get to the floor safely, and sneak into his Mercedes-Benz limo. Seeing as all his men were busy keeping the bounty hunter and her friends away, he had no choice but to drive himself.

The car roared as the V12 engine came to life, and then screeched away with a tire mark the length of the car. The shutters to outside were down, so he broke through them using the car as a battering ram.

At that exact moment, the officer with the battering ram swung it at the metal door, as the black Mercedes came breaking out of the roller shutters a few yards away, and hit the ground with a shower of sparks. The car did a 270-degree turn and headed up the road towards the roadblock.

"CHICAGO P.D! FREEZE!" yelled Roy, but the limo kept on going, so the officers fired upon the car. A few bullets bounced off the armour, the rear glass took a few slugs but refused to shatter.

Rally, Misty and May appeared from the doors that had been broken, with Romanov in tow, helped along by Misty's knife being prodded in his back every now and then. Watching the scene unfold in front of them, Rally looked back into the warehouse, and then up the road.

"Come on! Follow me May. Misty, I want you to look after Romanov for me. We're going after that creep. I owe him some payback!" Rally sounded angry that Predinski was getting away.

Rally ran back into the warehouse, and jumped into the 2nd Mercedes. May got in the passenger side.

Rally fired up the Mercedes V12 engine as predinski had done a few moments ago, and slammed it into D.the car lunged forward at the sudden explosion of power to the wheels, spinning them wildly and leaving a trail of rubber and smoke behind them.

"GO GET'EM RAL!" yells Misty excitedly.

The Mercedes flies out of the previously made hole in the doors and lands with another shower of sparks, and does a 90-degree turn with the handbrake and Rally begins the pursuit.

**part 10Gunning it**

Up ahead, Carlos see's the truck blocking the way and accelerates more, then swerves to the left. The front of the armoured Mercedes hits the front left hand side of the truck with force, and the truck is knocked round out of the way, damaging the front right hand side wing of the Merc along with it.

Rally was accelerating after him in the 2nd Merc, pushing that big, heavy lump of steel to its limit, blowing past Roy and the officers with inches to spare.

Roy and the officers head to the broken doorway, to be greeted by the smiling face of Misty Brown, and the dishevelled look of Ivan Romanov.

"There's 2 more tied up in the large storeroom, and a few others injured up on the balcony there, along with a nice item that'll put these guys away for a LOONG time!" she goes, as the officers come to take Romanov into custardy, then surrenders to the officers herself as they signal for her to place her hands on her head.

A female officer puts the 'cuffs on Misty.

Detective Coleman looks at her as she gets walked past him, and shakes his head.

"I'll see you later, Misty" he says quietly, then turns his attention to the warehouse.

"Alright then people. Sweep this place, top to bottom, find any more bad guys and bring 'em in. let's see what secrets this place is hiding"

"Sir, backup's here, and there is two cars going after the two Mercedes that just left here at speed" goes Black over the walkie-talkie.

'Better late than never' Roy muses to himself, and then starts thinking of excuses to tell his superiors over what happened here and why.

On the Chicago Ave, Predinski and Rally were racing, one for his life, and the other for her chance to extract some revenge.

The Mercedes were weaving in and out of traffic, both surprised at the amount on the road at that time of night.

Carlos nearly lost it a few times at these speeds, but rally was maintaining her composure and keeping the big car on course. A few hundred yards behind them, the sound of sirens on the police Chevrolet Crown Victoria's penetrated the night air.

May goes in the glove box on the Merc and then squeals with delight.

"Rally, it's your gun!" she goes

"Pass it here may" she says and chucks Romanov's Ruger on the back seat of the car.

Rally gets her gun in her hand, and immediately can tell that it's loaded, but not fully.

"Right…" she goes "May, lean over and take the wheel"

With that, Rally presses the button for the window, pulls her glasses out and puts them on, and leans out to take a shot at the car.

Suddenly, May pulls the wheel to the right sharply as Carlos puts a car between them and himself.

"DAMN YOU, MORON!" screams May, as rally has to line up another shot at the speeding car.

Carlos see's what is being attempted in his rear view mirror, and brakes hard. The big Mercedes locks up all four wheels and slides in a straight line.

"SHIT!"

Rally shouts as they overshoot the target vehicle. She pulls herself back in and grabs the wheel off May, and punches her foot on the brake pedal as well, while whipping the steering wheel round to the left.

Carlos knew that the two girls would attempt to turn the car or regain their position so they could shoot at him, and so the accelerator goes down again hard, and two and a half tons of armour-plated Mercedes launches towards the second car that is now almost facing sideways on a few yards ahead.

Rally's driving skills are second only to one person, and he wasn't there. Rally saw what the desperate Carlos was attempting to do, and made the big merc move again. But it's sheer weight and size made it much harder to manoeuvre than her cobra, and with that, an almighty BANG from the rear end of their car made them realize that they had just been hit.

The Mercedes started to spin around from the impact, rally throwing the cars weight against the spin to bring it back around and back into the chase.

Up ahead of the situation, a rookie police officer was listening to his C.B radio at the side of the road, watching, waiting and readying himself to use the new 'toy' the police had, an electronic scrambler harpoon gun, which could short circuit the entire electrical system on a car, causing it to stop involuntarily after impact.

The first speeding Mercedes, with Carlos predinski driving, was coming up fast on the trap laid ahead, Rally Vincent not letting up on her pursuit of this man, maintaining a short distance between them and him.

Suddenly, up ahead he saw the police car at the side of the road, and an officer holding a weird looking device.

What choice?

Do I attempt to go through and risk being shot by _that?_

Do I stop and surrender to this _bounty hunter?_

Do I…

His thought was cut short, as he shot past the cop, who shot the harpoon and hit the side of the Mercedes with a glancing blow, not full contact!

Only two pins had gone in, not the three required to shut everything down.

The car's electrical systems start to act up, starting up and shutting down randomly, windows going up and down, seats moving on their own, the throttle coming on and off, causing the car to slow down.

Rally used this opportunity to accelerate quickly up to the side of the car, and then draw her gun on him.

"Carlos Predinski, you're coming in with me!" she yells, then quickly moves her aim to the front right hand tire of the car.

BANG! BANG!

PHWOOSH!

Down went the tire, and he lost control of the car.

No longer able to steer properly, and with a failing car, Carlos yelled a Russian profanity at his aggressors, and then the Mercedes careered off into the side of the road.

With an almighty impact, the bonnet flew open, and the engine started smoking and died.

The brakes went on in their car, and rally and May turned around to head back to the scene.

**part11 The next morning**

A few hours had passed since the transgression on the highway, and Rally, May and Misty were all looking sad and sullen.

It's bad enough going through all that in one night, without having the hassle of the police arrest you as well for numerous traffic offences and violations, as well as not believing you when you tell them that you are a state licensed bounty hunter in pursuit of a suspect, who was now lying in hospital in a critical state.

Suddenly, a voice bellows from the corridor.

"Hopkins, Vincent, Brown"

A rather stockily built guard appears from the corridor and opens the cell door.

"A visitor for you" he goes.

With that, a rather pleased looking Roy Coleman appears from behind him, and walks into the cell to greet the girls.

"It's O.K Joe, leave the door open"

"Yes sir"

"ROY!" goes the three girls at the same time, and all standing up to go greet him.

"HEY" he goes, as they surround him "I need to talk to you three"

"Sure Roy" goes Rally

"Yeah, course" replies May

"What about?" asks Misty

"What happened last night, I need to know everything, to be able to help you," he says.

They tell him the events of the previous night.

"Ah, so now we are here" he goes, after listening to their story.

"Well, I got some good news, and I got bad news. What do you want first?"

Rally looks down at the ground for a few seconds, and then looks at Roy.

"Give us the bad…"she replies

"O.K then, the bad news is that I will have to ask you for your gun and licence for a few weeks, Rally. Meaning you won't be able to go out hunting for a while. The good news is that, thanks to you, we now have the evidence to put Predinski and his cronies away for a long time, and he is expected to make a full recovery in time for his trial"

"My gun and licence? That's unfair Roy"

"Hey. Outta my hands .I'm lucky to keep my badge for this. The chief went ballistic when he found out I didn't have a warrant, so now he's had to apply for a post-dated one to cover. Good news is that the DA is expected to grant it and will prosecute it as well"

"Is there anything we can do?" May asks hopefully.

"As a matter of fact, yes." He replies

"If you give evidence at his trial, the judge will grant you a full review and you'll get you're licence back" he goes, looking at Rally, then turns to May and Misty "and if you two keep out of trouble, this 'incident' will be forgotten, understand?"

They nod their heads in unison.

"Good, now then, follow me, and lets get out of here" he goes.

* * *

"BYE ROY!" Rally shouts as they leave through the front doors of the police station into the early morning sunshine, "and thanks"

"RALLY!" he yells, "around the corner, in the car lot"

"HUH?" she goes, and then they head in the direction told them by Roy.

In the yard around the corner, under the overhead train bridge, the row of police cruisers and impound cars seemed endless. Then they saw them.

"MY COBRA!" yells rally

"MY FIAT!" shouts May

"My god, don't these two have anything better?" mumbles Misty

* * *

"Sign here please" goes the mechanic on duty.

"You know" he says " you were lucky that these were bought her under orders of detective Coleman, or else they'd have ended up in the other yard across town, to be broken up or destroyed"

Rally grabs the keys to her car off the mechanic and starts to murmur something under her breath.

Misty takes May's keys and goes to the FIAT, Rally and May head to the Cobra.

"Look after my baby, Misty. I want him back in one piece" she goes

"I'll look after him, and bring him to you later on, I just want to head home and sleep for a few hours" Misty replies

"Good idea" goes Rally "after all that, I am shattered, and I feel as if I could sleep for a week"

May yawns in agreement, and the two cars head their separate ways.

_**Epilogue**_

A few weeks have passed since the encounter with the Russian mafia, and Rally and May were back home.

Rally had done as requested, and testified at Predinski's trial.

Not only was he going down for numerous drugs trafficking and dealing felonies, but now he had kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, GBH and wounding with intent to add to that list.

Yesterday, she had stopped by the station to see Roy, who had given her back her bounty hunters licence and prized gun, as promised by the courts for her co-operation, so she was in a very good mood this morning.

A knock at the front door comes as a surprise to both ladies, as they were not expecting company.

Rally answers the door.

"May, it's for you"

"Who is it?" she calls from upstairs in the shower room

"Becky"

May comes down stairs from the shower with a towel wrapped around her, looking puzzled as to why Becky should want to see her.

"Becky, Hi.what's up?"

"Don't Hi me, Miss Hopkins. You still owe me, I'm here to collect"

"HUH?"

"For the info on the car, and the guy it belonged to" she snaps

"OH YEAH! Now I remember. How much?" May asks

"Nothing" goes Becky

"Nothing?" May has an even more puzzled look on her face now

"NOTHING?" goes Rally, upset by the fact Becky always charges her for info

"UM HUH, nothing, no charge. But you can DO something for me however" she replies, with a sly smile slowly creeping across her normally serious face.

"Like…?"

"WELLLL" she goes " first off, my car needs a clean, then my house could use a dusting, also, my fridge needs restocking, and I'm attending a journalist's convention in a few days, so my best dress suit needs washing and ironing…"

May runs upstairs towards her room, screaming.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! I HATE HOUSEWORK!"

"YOU DID SAY ANYTHING, MAY!" shouts Becky, as she runs up the stairs after her.

Rally just stands by the front door, laughing.

Then she closes the door behind herself.

"It's good to get back to normal," she says to herself, as she walks towards the cobra, to drive the short distance to the shop, to open up for the day.

THE END 

_Gunsmith Cats will return in another fanfic soon!_


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